Luck of the Draw
by star jelly
Summary: What if Mike Logan had had someone there to help him as he grew up. AU Rated T for mention of abuse.
1. Chapter 1

Mike had a happy family once. When Mike was little he would always sit by the front door and wait for his father to come home. He would sweep Mike into his arms and carry him into the kitchen where his mom was making dinner. Ten minutes later dinner would be on the table, and Mike's father would entertain the family with stories about his day. After dinner Mike's mother would give him a bath and get him in his pajamas. She would tuck him into bed and then his father would come and tell him stories about his days as a fighter pilot. He even gave Mike a pin from his days in the air-force, a pin that Mike's mom constantly had to pin and repin on anything Mike wore. On weekends when his father would take him to the park, Mike would point to the planes flying overhead and say "There's you daddy!"

Then one night everything changed. After Mike had been tucked in and he had heard his story his parent went into the other room like the normally did. Mike could hear his parents talking. At first he just heard hushed voices like he usually did after he went to bed. Suddenly his mother's voice got very loud, and she began to scream at his father.

The next day Mike's father came home late from work. From then on Mike's father came home later and later, and the fights grew more and more frequent. It came to the point where Mike went to sleep at night with his head under his pillow to drown out his parent's shouting. Mike's father began staying out later and later, but Mike kept waiting for him at the door every night. Some nights his mother would have him come to the table to eat dinner before going to bed. But usually Mike's mother forgot, leaving him at the front door until he was asleep. Even then she left him there until his father got home and took him to bed. Mike often woke up again when his parents would start to fight.

As this went on Mike's mother started having a very minty smell about her. She would drink something that Mike was not allowed to have, and she would drink it all the time. Mike no longer relied on his mother to make him breakfast, that was his job, and she would only make Mike lunch when he reminded her. Even then it was burned and almost impossible to eat.

Mike's sweet loving mother became a horrible monster, yelling at not only his father but Mike too. One day Mike started crying because his mother hadn't made lunch. She slapped him and told him to keep quiet. That night Mike waited for his father by the front door. When he woke up the next mourning he found that he was still in front of the door. His father never came home. And that was the end of Mike's happy family.


	2. Chapter 2

The last time Mike got a present from his family was his fifth birthday. He received a baseball mitt that use to belong to his father. Well actually he didn't receive it. His mother got drunk and passed out on the couch. This had happened enough times for Mike to know that he wasn't going to be getting any food unless he got it for himself. Mike usually made himself a bowl of cereal or eggs, but since it was his birthday Mike wanted pizza. He started going through all of his mom's things, hoping to find money. He did find money, twenty dollars to be exact, in his dad's old closet. He also found the baseball mitt with a note attached to it. It wasn't until a few years later that Mike learned that the note said, "To my beloved son Mike". Mike took the mitt and hid it under his bed. He had learned that if his mom saw anything that reminded her of his father she would get very very angry. And that was the last time he got a birthday present from his family.

A few days later Mike's mother gave him twenty bucks and told him to go down to the store and get "her favorite". The man who owned the liquor store on the corner of their block was a very good "friend" of Mike's mom, so he didn't even hesitate to hand over a large bottle of peppermint vodka to the five year old. When Mike got home his mother immediately poured herself a drink. For the first time in a long time, Mike found himself showered with hugs and kisses as his mother told him over and over again that she loved him. However, by her fifth drink Mike found himself knocked to the floor and beaten as his mom yelled obscenities at him. The world went black. When Mike woke up a few hours later, he found his mom passed out on the sofa, with an empty bottle of vodka next to her.

So began the regular routine in the Logan household. At least once a week his mother would send him down to the liquor store, and then she would shower him with love and then beat him. Mike became very good at sensing his mother's moods, knowing when she was going to beat him, and knowing when she was happy or sad. One day Logan tripped and broke the bottle he had been carrying to her. Mike had the worst beating that night. At least when his mother smelled of peppermint Mike knew that it wasn't her that was really there. When there was the smell of peppermint around his mother it meant that the real her had gone, and an evil person had taken her place. That night Mike discovered that his real mother could be much more vicious then the one that smelled of peppermint.

After that night Mike always went to the store and back home. He was worried that if he delayed, for even a second, he would encounter the rage of his real mother again. Mike could take being beaten if he knew that in the mourning his real mother, the one that loved him and kissed him, and fed him, would be there; if only for a while. He couldn't take it if that same woman was the one who knocked him to the floor and kicked him while he was down. So he always went straight to the store and then home. Well he did that until the day he heard the sound of kids laughing. Mike usually didn't pay attention to anything, to wrapped up in his fantasy of his dad coming back and saving him, or his mom going back to normal. But on that day, Mike was paying attention to the world around him. Maybe it was because his mother had him buy two bottles instead of one, or maybe it was because the sun was out, the sky was blue, and it was exactly like the days his dad would take him to the park. For what ever reason, Mike was paying attention.

He heard the sound of other kids laughing. His heart seemed to feel lighter when he heard that sound. For almost six months the only laughter Mike had heard was his mother's harsh cold laughter when she was drunk. But this laughter was light, it was happy. So Mike decided to find the laughter. Instead of going home Mike turned at the corner that his dad used to turn at when taking Mike to the park. It took him a little longer then he remembered, but Mike found the park. He walked through the gate and went over to the sand box where he sat and watched other kids playing.

What a sight he must have been to the people at the park. A small five year old boy, sitting in a sand box, carefully clutching a large brown paper bag. If people were staring at him, young Mike didn't notice. He was too busy caught up in sights of fathers playing with their sons and mothers chasing their children around the play structure. Mike sat completely still watching the people around him.

"I'm Carolyn and I'm four" Mike jumped to his feet, and spun around to see a girl about his age smiling at him with four fingers raised to proudly display her age.

"I'm Mike." he said quietly to the girl. "I'm this old" he held up five fingers, and a look of surprise and joy crossed his face when he realized that that was one finger more then the little girl was holding up.

"I can build sand castles want to see?" the girl said. Mike nodded. For the next hour Mike built sandcastles and played with Carolyn in the park. Mike hadn't smiled like he did that day in a long time. Eventually his fun came to an end when a woman called Carolyn away.

"Bye" she waved at him before running off to go to her mother. Mike waved back until he couldn't see her anymore. Then he picked up his bag and went home. When he got home Mike discovered that it didn't matter if he was late or early and it didn't matter if his mother was drunk or sober, no matter what his mother would beat him.  
So from then on Mike went to the park before going home.


	3. Chapter 3

It took a week before Mike saw Carolyn again. He was sitting in the sandbox when she ran up to him, just like she had done the first time they had met. She waved at him and giggled "Hi" before sitting down next to him in the sand.

"Do that again!" Mike exclaimed. It had been so long since he had heard anyone giggle, the sound enthralled him.

"Do what?" she asked.

"Make that sound." Mike demanded poking her in the side. Carolyn let out a shriek of laughter as he did and started yelling "UNCLE ETHAN!"

"What?" Mike asked while poking her again. He had realized that she giggle more when poked. Carolyn burst into another fit of giggles all the while yelling "UNCLE ETHAN!" After a few pokes her giggling and yelling got Mike giggling too. Soon they were both laughing as they poked each other and -in Mike's case- threw sand at each other.

* * *

After that Mike made sure that he was always at the park the same day that Carolyn was. One day Carolyn skipped over to him happily and asked if they could go one the swings.

"Do you know how to pump?" Carolyn asked. Mike shook his head no. "I'll teach you. I'm a good teacher." She said proudly. Pretty soon Mike felt as though he were flying as he pumped, furiously trying to get higher then Carolyn. He could hear Carolyn giggling and singing "Happy Birthday". Mike stopped suddenly stopped swinging.

"Is it your birthday?" he asked. Carolyn nodded, her curls bouncing as her head bobbed up and down.

"Yes! I turned five! That means I get to go to school!" she said excitedly.

"What's school?" asked Mike.

"School is where you go to learn silly." Carolyn said in a matter-of-fact tone of voice.

"How do you go?"

"You go when your five!" Mike was confused. He had been five for a while. Why hadn't he gone to school? Carolyn kept talking not noticing that Mike had gone silent. "Mommy says I'll learn to read and write and count, but I already know how to count to ten! Want to see?" Mike didn't say anything but Carolyn showed him anyway. Carolyn probably would have kept going but a woman called her name and then said something Mike didn't understand. Carolyn jumped off the swing.

"Mommy's calling, bye Mikey!" Mike didn't watch her skip out of the park too busy thinking about school.

* * *

The next day something happened that made Mike forget about school for a few days. Mike's mother woke him up gently. Mike hadn't seen her look so pretty in a while. She had red powder on her cheeks and she smelled like flowers instead of mint.

"Mike" she whispered, "I made you breakfast." Mike quickly got out of bed and ran into the kitchen. On the table there were pancakes, just like before his dad had left. Mike jumped up and down excitedly and a smile appeared on his mother's face.

"Is daddy back?" he asked excitedly. Just as quickly as the smile had appeared it disappeared.

"No Mike, Daddy's not back." She said seriously. "Mike I need to talk to you about something important."

"I don't want you to leave!" Mike shrieked, jumping up to grab his mom around the waist.

"Mike I'm not leaving" she said as she tried to detach Mike from her waist. "Mike let go! I said I'm not leaving!" Mike let go but watched his mother very closely for any signs that she might run.

"Mike I'm not leaving" she said calmly. "I'm going to work."

"Like Daddy did?" Mike asked. His mother frowned at the mention of his father again.

"Sort of. Mike this means that you're going to be alone for most of the day ok?" she said. Mike nodded. "Good now eat your breakfast."

* * *

From Monday to Friday Mike was able to sneak out of his apartment with ease. His mother would leave around nine and get back bye a little after five. For a little while she seemed to be her old self again, and it was on one of those days Mike raised the question of school.

"What do you want to know about school?" she asked.

"When do I go?"

"Mike you start this fall, didn't I tell you that?" Mike shook his head. "Well you start this fall." Nothing more was said on the subject.

The next night when Mike's mother came home from work she brought a bottle with her.


End file.
